


My Jish

by Marie_thevillain



Series: Twenty One Pilots one-shots [3]
Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst?, Comfort, Gen, Josh is a human peep, One Shot, the hair reveals him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 00:06:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6881134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marie_thevillain/pseuds/Marie_thevillain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyler takes a walk in a cemetery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Jish

It was a bright, warm day, and the tour bus had stopped for gas and a snack run before returning to the road for another six hours.

Touring was fun. It was stressful, there were time limits, high expectations, and any mishaps were seen as the possible end to the world, but even with the tension of it all, touring was invigorating.

It gave a sense of community that a band wouldn't get otherwise. Every show was different from the one before. There were thousands of unique people they got to experience. Touring was just one of the many wonderful things that Tyler was grateful for in his life.

That said, being on a bus for six hours will make anyone want to run in circles outside, yelling at the top of their lungs, "Fresh air! I can yell 'sick' as loud as I want! Ha! Can't tell me to be quiet! Open space!"

Of course, Tyler didn't do this. That would be awkward.

When Tyler opened the bus door, he was greeted with the sort of unpleasant heat that you can smell right before it hits your face.

He scrunched his nose and stepped outside. "Josh, grab cereal!" His best friend/drummer/humanoid peep nodded before entering the station.

Looking around, there wasn't much Tyler could see other than prairie grass. Then he glanced at the opposite end of the parking lot. There were slabs of rock, all in a line.

He hummed to himself before making a quick decision. The boy took wide steps to the cemetery. Not wanting to run, it always seemed disrespectful to run, but still wanting to get there before the bus had to leave.

When he got to the gravestones, he realized the cemetery lot was far bigger than he thought. There were hundreds of different headstones; flat, standing, there were even statues of angels, looking over the remains of loved ones.

It felt strange to be in a cemetery on a warm, sunny day. Tyler took off his sunglasses. Again, it just didn't feel respectful to wear them.

There was one tree in the lot. Underneath it, Tyler saw someone sitting beside a relatively new grave marker. The headstone was flat, just like all the other new graves.

There was no reason to walk up to this person. It was probably indecent. They were there to reminisce about who they lost. It would be an intrusion to go and sit by them. So why did Tyler want to?

He chewed his lip for a moment before taking quiet steps toward the tree and its companion. When he got there, the shade wasn't any shield from the heat, and as he sat down, there was a sense of timelessness that came over him. It was as if the world had frozen.

There were only three things that mattered in the stillness.

1\. Tyler was under a tree in the middle of nowhere.

2\. There was a stranger sitting next to him.

3\. The headstone read, 'Joshua Graham, loving son, best friend,  June 26, 1999 - February 2, 2016'.

He held his breath and didn't look at the person next to him. They spoke in a small voice, "He didn't want a flat headstone. That's all you can get though."

Tyler didn't want to know how he died, or how the stranger knew Joshua Graham. Because it suddenly hit him, 'it doesn't matter'.

It didn't matter that Joshua was only 16. It didn't matter that he had a family and a best friend. It didn't change anything. He was gone. And there was nothing Tyler could do about it.

The person continued on, "I put those purple wildflowers that grow outside my window on it, to make it a little better, but I think a deer ate them. Maybe a kid took them. He'd have been okay with it. Maybe. I hope so."

Tyler didn't want to look at their face. He didn't want to know what they looked like. Their voice was disconnected. It held a hollow tone, and sounded resigned.

"My Josh. My Jish."

The separate world of the cemetary was broken into by the sound of the bus starting. Tyler stood up.

"I'll be okay. I'm always okay."

He took one step forward before turning around to face the voice. It belonged to a girl. She can't have been older than Joshua would've been. Her face was without tension. No emotion, except for a flicker of acceptance, was in her eyes.

She met Tyler's gaze, "I think your ride is leaving."

He nodded and stumbled out of the cemetery. The bus had crossed the parking lot, the driver knowing Tyler had gone walking. When he opened the door and got in, his mouth was still clamped shut.

Josh looked up from his phone and asked, "Where did you- What's wrong?"

Tyler walked over to the couch and sat next to Josh, curling his legs beneath him and laying his head on the drummer's shoulder. Josh wrapped his shoulders in a hug, waiting for Tyler to speak.

Tyler closed his eyes.

'My Jish.'

**Author's Note:**

> This may become a two parter, I'm not sure. It's just something I did really quick, based off of a conversation a friend and I had about if one of us died. I'll probably change it in the morning when I'm not sleep deprived.


End file.
